Halcyon Days End
by BlueJustice
Summary: Aki is a girl who holds a dark mystery even she can't comprehend, a mystery people are after. Nyaya, a skilled Airbender, is set on finding out what it is. Can he save her before it's too late? Set between the events of Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra.


Hello everyone! Thanks for your interest in reading my story. I hope you like it!

Story is set right before Korra arrives to Republic city.

I don't own atla, tlok, the characters, or anything in them. I do claim ownership of my OCs though.

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Chapter 1: A Dark Secret

"Well Nyaya, I see that your skills have improved! Well done, I congratulate you." My adversary said, grabbing with the grip of his sheathed sword with his left hand.

"Heh, what can I say? I guess when I am in the heat of battle, pressure makes me better." I replied, blood running down my face. "You however, are in the wrong side of this battle."

"Forget it! I have heard enough of your ideals and you of my own. You and I both know where this battle is gonna end. Let our bending decide whose ideals' are right!" My adversary yelled, unsheathing his sword in the process and pointing it at my face.

I sighed, knowing the truth in his words. There's no more running away from it. The spirits will only show mercy to one of us in this battle.

"Very well, may the best man win." I said.

I paused for a few seconds, taking in the fact that one of us will die in this battle, and charged at my adversary.

- A few hours earlier -

"Alright class, everyone turn to page 143 in your History books. We will discuss today the beginnings of the earth kingdom and how they used earthbending to benefit their society." I heard our teacher, Ms. Foux say.

Suddenly, a choir of groans and no's filled the room, as this was our most boring class of the day.

My name's Nyaya. Apparently, it means justice in an ancient air nomad tongue. I couldn't care less; there's no such thing as justice in this world. If there was, I wouldn't be here right now.

I never met who my real parents were. I lived in the streets of Republic City off of whatever extra unused food Kwong's Cuisine threw away, and the occasional cabbages I stole from a local vendor. I liked living like this, not because it was the only way I knew how to live, but because I was free, unbound from the petty routines every person in this damned city followed.

One day, I found a "family" of my own. It was a street gang named the "Hellbenders". I know, the named is stupid, but I didn't choose it, so I just dealt with it. Anyways, as I was walking back to the alley I called my "home," I saw a group of four guys picking on another much younger person. They grabbed him by the collar and started beating him senselessly, so I decided to intervene by fighting those guys. I did pretty well, I took out three of them, but unfortunately the last one was too strong for me and knocked me to the ground with a swift blow to the gut. Right before that guy could kick me in the face though, a group of six other kids showed up and beat that guy up to a pulp. Turns out, that little kid I saved was the younger brother of the Hellbenders' leader and those guys were a rival gang that wanted to get revenge by killing the little kid. Apparently, the Hellbenders were impressed with my fighting and wanted to recruit me. I said no at first, but they wouldn't take no for an answer, so I reconsidered and decided to give them a chance, thinking it would be a fun change of pace. Eventually, after moving up the ranks, I became the leader's most trusted man in battle.

Years passed and the unthinkable happened to me: I discovered I could airbend! It was the most exciting moment of my life. Now I would be unstoppable against the other gangs! I led our gang to many victories. We never lost once against a rival gang. Basically, the entire republic city was our turf. Everything was under our control.

Oh yeah, and did I mention I am spiritually gifted as well? It's true. While other people have extreme difficulty talking and seeing spirits, it's a piece of cake to me. I don't know why, but it's pretty cool to be able to do something most other people can't.

Unfortunately though, all good things must come to an end sometime.

One day, we discovered there was a traitor among us. He was the fourth highest member in our group and no one saw it coming. He ratted us out to that Lin lady from the police and we were put behind bars before we could realize what hit us. Of course, because we were underage, they couldn't keep us there, but they ended up sending me somewhere much worse. They sent me to this Bending School to be "corrected" for my behavior since they knew I could airbend. Everyone else just got a couple of months of probation or were sent to foster homes.

However, even through all that, I don't have any desire for revenge against the police or the person who ratted us out. I'm not that type of guy. Revenge is for the unwise, for fools. It's the highest form of not accepting defeat against an opponent who is better than you. From the day I joined that gang, I knew it wasn't going to last forever. Our "gang wars" were all just a game to me, and this traitor outsmarted us and we fell for it. All I can say is it was a good game while it lasted.

Going back to reality, as I turn to the page in my book, I see there's a new person in our class with us. It's a small, brown-haired girl sitting two seats to my left.

"Psst! Hey Varwu, who's that girl?" I asked my friend Varwu sitting next to me. Varwu is one of the few people I can call my friend. He was also a part of a gang before getting caught and sent here as punishment. We are very alike, however, most of the time he thinks with his dick rather than his head, and that's why he got caught in the first place. Some girl he was hitting on turned out to be working for the police and put him behind bars.

"Aki? Where were you when the teacher introduced her five minutes ago?" He replied.

"Obviously not paying attention like every single class." I replied coldly.

"Well, anyways, she is a new student in the academy. The teacher didn't say much more than that, but I'm sure that we can find out more about her during lunch. I know I will." He said with a lustful smile.

"Ugh, you are sick you know that? Whatever, just wake me up once class is done." I told Arwu.

"You're going to sleep? You know, one of these days, not paying attention in class is going to come bite you in the butt."

"Are you kidding me? These classes are useless. Why the hell should I be learning history to know how to airbend correctly? I'm probably the best airbender in this school too!" I replied.

"Do what you want, but don't say I didn't warn you."

"Whatever."

Quickly zoning out of the class, I did what I normally do best, meditate and speak to spirits. It took a couple of minutes, but I was able to move into the spiritual realm without a hitch.

As I looked around me, I was in the familiar forest that always greets me when first entering the realm.

I remember the first time I entered the spirit realm. Because I was a little kid, I found it spooky. That day, I began to meditate in our base because I heard one of the Hellbenders say one could concentrate better after one did so, and since there was a big battle coming up against the triads, I could really use it.

Only a few minutes passed and I found myself in the spirit world, only I didn't know it was that. I thought someone either killed me while meditating or they knocked me out and I was dreaming.

I began to walk around the forest looking for answers but I got lost. It seemed like days passed by but it was probably only a couple of hours. As I was walking, a half lion, half monkey found me. It began speaking to me, asking me who I was and what was I doing in his home. I was amazed that an animal could speak to me, so he told me I was in the spiritual realm and it's commonplace for animals to speak here.

I explained who I was and what I was doing here. He was very friendly and we became close friends over time. He never agreed with me about my philosophy on gang wars, but he still cared for me nonetheless. Whenever I was bored or stressed, I visited him, like right now.

"Nyaya! Thank goodness you are here! I need to speak to you immediately!" My friend Rex yelled.

"Whoa, hey Rex, I'm doing alright thanks for asking." I replied sarcastically.

"Cut the crap this is serious, you are in real danger in the physical world!" He yelled in my face.

"What do you mean? Am I going to die of boredom from having to listen to the teacher?" I replied with a laugh, but before I could finish Rex slapped me across the face.

"Stop being a smartass! Listen, I don't know any details, but apparently there's a group of people headed towards the school to attack and kill everyone inside. These aren't people to mess around with!"

"What!? Where did you hear that, and why the school out of all places!?" I replied.

"The great owl told me, and you know he never lies. Unfortunately, I don't know why they are doing this. All I know is that Aki, that new girl, is somehow involved. Nyaya, you need to do something about this, you need to stop them! I-I don't want to lose you..." Rex replied melancholically.

"Don't worry Rex, you won't! I will take the guys out before they can do anything to us." I said.

"I hope you are right. Now go! Hurry before it's too late."

With a final goodbye, I snapped myself out of the spiritual realm and came back to the same old boring classroom.

It wasn't going to be boring for long however.

As I looked around the room, I saw that the teacher was still in the middle of teaching and everyone else was either asleep or doing something else. Everyone except for Aki, she was actually listening to the teacher. Just as I was about to get off my seat to "go to the bathroom," an explosion shook everyone off their seats.

"What was that? What's going on?" The teacher asked, with the students all waking up and asking these same questions between themselves.

One look out the window and I knew what was going on. What Rex told me was true and it was happening right now.

The explosion destroyed the school's main gate, allowing four trucks filled with people to enter the premises.

I saw many masked men getting out of the trucks and barging into different classrooms, attacking innocent teachers and students where they stood. Everyone tried to fight back but no one stood a chance. Whoever these guys are, they are professional.

My confidence in my airbending abilities was beginning to weaken. The fact that everyone was screaming and running around, looking for a place to hide wasn't helping me very much either.

"Damn Nyaya, what the hell is going on, who are these guys?" My friend Varwu asked me.

"I don't care who they are, but I'm about to go kick their asses." I said.

"What? Are you crazy? You are going to get yourself killed! What makes you think you will stand a chance against these guys!?"

"Simple, I doubt they are expecting a skilled _airbender_ in this school who actually wants to fight them head on, so the element of surprise is actually in my favor."

"You are crazy, you know that?"

"Yeah, crazy good." I said with a wink and a thumbs up.

Hearing the fighting coming closer to us, I began to get myself ready to attack them. However, I remembered what my friend said about Aki being involved in this, so I looked around the room to find her and saw her hiding under a desk covering her head with her arms.

"Aki, are you ok? Aki!" I yelled grabbing her and shaking her. However, this seemed to startle her even more, probably thinking I was one of those masked men, and she wet her pants, literally.

"I'm sorry. I'm really scared. This-This is all my fault. Those masked men are looking to kill me." Aki said.

"Why do you think so? Did you provoke them or something?"

"No, no, it's not like that. The reason is... I can bend all four elements." She said, which made my jaw hit the floor from the shock.

"What? No way, that's not possible, only the avatar can do that! The current avatar is Korra, the girl from the southern water tribe! There can't be two avatars simultaneously!" I yelled.

"I know that, but how do you explain this!?" She said, showing me that she could earth bend, air bend, fire bend, and water bend simultaneously.

I dislocated my jaw.

"What!? How is this possible? Is Korra fake then? How can there be two avatars!?" I said, also realizing that the fighting was almost upon us.

"All I know is that I can bend all four elements but I obviously can't do other things an avatar can like entering the avatar state. I don't know why, but I'm going to find out soon." Aki said.

Suddenly, our door was kicked down by a masked person holding electrically charged sticks in his hands.

"Everyone duck!" I yelled, and as soon as they did, I unleashed an air slash so powerful that it split the person in half through the waist, making him yell in agony. Unfortunately, there were two more guys behind him. I managed to blast one against the wall and crack his skull, but the other one was just too fast and ended up paralyzing me through a series of punches to my spine - a technique I heard is called chi blocking.

As the person was about to electrocute me, Aki shot a fireball to his face that effectively decapitated him.

"Are you ok?" Aki asked me, trembling at the fact that she just killed someone to protect me. I can see the innocence and childishness washing away from her eyes.

"Yeah, thanks for the help." I replied, feeling bad for her.

"Guys, we need to get out of here and find shelter until the police arrive!" Arwu said.

Before I could reply with a no, another set of armed men entered our room, but this time, they were benders, two already carrying fireballs in their hands and another two with water floating around them.

"Crap, there's more!" Aki yelled.

The benders started to attack everyone in the room. Unfortunately, only Aki, my friend, the teacher, and I knew our bending powers well enough to create a protection barrier to defend ourselves. Everyone else was hit with their attacks and were killed on the spot from fire balls or ice shards. It wasn't a pretty sight.

"Damn you all!" I yelled with such fury that my anger got the better of me and released a current of air towards the enemy so fast that it was just like what is commonly known as plasma. The soldiers didn't stand a chance and just melted in the attack's path.

However, attack took so much energy that I passed out on the spot.

"Owww, my head, it hurts!" I said, clutching it, and realizing it was bleeding from the impact my head must have made with the ground when I passed out. As I looked around, I saw in the position I was in...

...About a dozen of those assassins circled me and had their electrically charged sticks ready to attack me. However, before I could attack them, I heard someone clapping.

"Bravo! Excellent performance!" Someone said, cutting through the people and moving towards me. As I got a clearer view of the person, I realized immediately who he was.

Kuen, my old leader in the Hellbenders, a friend of mine. No, not just a friend; the closest thing I have to a brother.

"Kuen, what are you doing here? Why are you with these people?" I asked.

"Why? Simple, I am their squad captain. We are the "Equalists"; we fight for the freedom of the people; freedom from the shackles that benders have imposed on humanity for centuries. Our leader, Amon, is fighting towards a world were everyone will be born equal and with the same chances to succeed in life just like everyone else, beginning with the removal of all bending from the world." Kuen explained.

"I see you haven't changed much through the years Kuen. Always messed up in the mind." I said, letting out a laugh that Kuen soon partook in.

"Well Nyaya, I see that your skills have improved! Well done, I congratulate you." My adversary said, grabbing with the grip of his sheathed sword with his left hand.

"Heh, what can I say? I guess when I am in the heat of battle, pressure makes me better." I replied, blood running down my face. "You however, are in the wrong side of this battle."

"Forget it! I have heard enough of your ideals and you of my own. You and I both know where this battle is gonna end. Let our bending decide whose ideals' are right!" My adversary yelled, unsheathing his sword in the process and pointing it at my face.

I sighed, knowing the truth in his words. There's no more running away from it. The spirits will only show mercy to one of us in this battle.

"Very well, may the best man win." I said.

I paused for a few seconds, taking in the fact that one of us will die in this battle, and charged at my adversary.

To be continued...


End file.
